Illustration by Arnie Bermudez

One week ago, the CatFest concert rocked Centennial Hall, and in a different incident, 125 minors were arrested for underage drinking. Those two events shared two similarities: underage university students and bottle openers.

It is not a secret that both the university and the City of Tucson are attempting to crack down on underage drinking.

Residence Life has expanded its strict alcohol policy, prohibiting students from displaying alcohol containers. The Tucson law-enforcement authorities have pledged to intensify their watch and respond to UA students who drink before the legal age. Local neighborhood associations are pushing the UA to enforce the student code of conduct off-campus.

As a result, students are feeling the pressure from above to think twice about popping the top off a cold one. Ironically, a student organization is going against the flood of "we must stop UA students from being crazy partiers" sentiments. Last Friday, the University Activities Board handed out bottle openers at the CatFest concert featuring Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

The item ÷ a plastic orange keychain bottle and can opener with the UAB logo and their slogan "get involved" ÷ was distributed with other free items to a concert audience, historically comprised of mostly freshmen.

But to Greg Billings, the UAB student president, the item is not a bottle opener; it is a "beverage wrench." He added, "That's the PC term for it."

Does it seem odd to anyone else that a student organization is handing out "beverage wrenches" at a concert attended by hundreds of freshmen and sophomores?

Concerned that the distribution of bottle openers to students who live in the residence halls might butt heads with Resident Life's stricter alcohol policy, it seemed the person to consult was James Van Arsdel, director of Residence Life.

"In my mind, they (alcohol and the beverage wrenches) are not related," Van Arsdel responded. "Now that I think about it, it is probably something I should give to my kids in college.· There are some situations that you just need a bottle opener, and if you don't have one you're stuck."

"They (beverage wrenches) could be used for alcohol, but they could probably be used for a million other things," he said.

A million things? A few of us at the Wildcat sat around for a while and brainstormed as to what this plastic bottle opener could also be used for. This is what we came up with: opening letters, pushing buttons, picking noses, grating cheese, cleaning dirt from under nails, wearing as earrings, using as self-defense weapons or possibly dissecting fish. That was only eight ideas. After much debate, we came to the conclusion that the only way this bottle opener could be used for a million things was if there were a million bottles of beer.

With the buzz about busting underage drinkers in residence halls who use alcohol paraphernalia such as the UAB bottle opener, I thought it would be interesting to hear what the Dean of Students Office thought of the item.

Although Veda Kowalski, associate dean of students, had not actually seen the opener, she had this to say: "There are other things the item could be used for; drinks come in all containers and there are a number of beverages that come in bottles. It is not fair to assume the item is solely used for alcohol. I don't think students would perceive it to be used only for alcohol."

She brought up a good point. Perhaps it was incorrect to assume that all students perceive that the beverage wrench could only be used for busting open a can of Natty Ice Light.

But before answering that question, I wanted to find out what common non-alcoholic products there were out there, so I went to the 7-eleven on the corner of North Park Avenue and East Speedway Boulevard.

Jason, the "7-eleven guy" on shift, pointed out the few products that the bottle opener could be used for besides getting drunk. Besides O'Doul's, the products included cans of soda, Slim-Fast, energy drinks and surprisingly Yoplait yogurt. The only other bottles were of root beer, Mexican soda and Izze.

Is it far-fetched to think that students are going to whip out their UAB can opener for their Arizona Iced Tea?

Next I ventured out to see what students thought. All six randomly selected students initially identified the item as a bottle opener. When asked what type of bottle, all responded "alcohol."

"I don't really buy (non-alcoholic) bottled drinks, and when I do they are twist-off, Jennine Stebing, a sophomore majoring in Spanish and Latin American studies responded. Jane Davis, a molecular and cellular biology senior, said, "It's a bottle opener, for non-screw-twist-off bottles. It is definitely used for alcoholic products. But, it could also hold keys."

When asked if the product could be used for anything else, music theatre junior Ben Crawford decided he could probably kill a mouse with one.

It seems fair to say that most students would perceive the UAB beverage wrench to be a convenient tool to open a bottle or can of alcohol.

"We probably should be aware of those perceptions," Van Arsdel confessed. "It might be something we should look into."

Tom Laetsch, theatre arts junior and UAB internal vice president, said that the beverage wrenches (which he later referred to as bottle openers) are their most popular marketing item. When asked about the perception that they could be used for alcohol, Sierra Ornelas, media arts senior and the producer of Comedy Corner (which is within UAB) said, "The bottle openers promote a social atmosphere. It represents an idea that when you come to UAB you come to socialize." She also added, "Saying that bottle openers promote drinking alcohol is like saying giving out lighters promotes smoking."

"The bottle openers communicate in a language the majority of college students understand," Louis Echevarria, the UAB films Chair and management information systems senior, added.

And that language has the UA and Tucson community up in arms and frustrated. Large party busts, stricter resident hall policies and irritated neighbors are all a product of the idea that there is something inherently natural about college students drinking alcohol.

The continued distribution of the UAB beverage wrenches is diluting the UA's attempt to tackle the problem of underage drinking and disruptive party behavior. But hey, I'll have one on my keychain. After all, I'm old enough to drink.

Jessica Lee is an environmental science senior. She can be reached at letters@wildcat.arizona.edu.